Jake DeBolt: AMD 1

For my AMD, I watched Goodbye Lenin, ein film mit Daniel Brühl. He is famous in America for his role as "Friedrich Zoller" in Inglorious Basterds, another fine film. Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It's a comedic look at the east/west German split, and the ramifications of the reunification. The film follows Alex Kerner and his mother, who is incredibly supportive of Communism, and is a staunch fan of the East German government. However, she falls into a coma, and while she is comatose, the government she loves so dearly falls, and Germany becomes uniformly capitalist. This wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that, upon his mother's waking, Alex is told that she cannot be subjected to any shocking stimuli, or else she may die. The fall of your favorite system of government would come as kind of a shock, so Alex tasks himself with the challenge of creating an East German world for his mother, and many wacky hijinks ensue. The film is actually fairly dark, but at the same time, some what screwball, especially considering the premise: a man trying to hide the fall of Communism from his mom. It's a very good movie, however, and I would rather not spoil anything significant. The ending was incredibly touching, and I plan to watch Downfall next week, which is another great film from Germany.